A couple of weeks ago, FamilySearch posted on their site the images within their Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001 record set. Previously, I had to check to see if an ancestor's death record had been indexed, and, if so, I had to order a copy of the image from their photoduplication service. This release of images was a big deal for me, because just about all of my and my husband's ancestors lived in and died in Ohio. I was somewhat disappointed, though, to see that death records for Darke County in western Ohio were NOT included in the record set. My husband's French Catholic ancestors settled in the northeastern part of that county, and I was looking forward to finding some of their death records.

Not one to dwell upon disappointment when there were so many OTHER county records to comb through, I decided to search through Mercer County's images for ancestors from my mother-in-law's side who settled there in the 19th century. I was searching through the entire set page-by-page, and I found a lot of ancestors whose records had not previously been indexed and whose names were indexed or transcribed so poorly that there proper names didn't show up in the search engine results.

Suddenly, I came across the name 'Crist Magato,' who was my husband's FRENCH 4th great-grandfather through his paternal grandmother's line. Christopher never lived in Mercer County, and, according to this death record, he didn't die there either. (Click below for larger view.) The death record states that he passed away in Osgood, which is a small town located in Patterson Twp, Darke County, about a mile south of the Mercer-Darke county line. In the 1880 U.S. Census, Christopher is living in Wayne Twp, Darke County, which is directly south of Patterson Twp. He is also buried in Frenchtown, Wayne Twp, so I assume he remained there until his 1892 death.

Mercer County Death Record for Christopher Magoto, 1892

I am glad that I stumbled upon a death record for him, but now, I have more questions. Why did his death occur in Osgood, and not closer to where I assumed he was living. Maybe he was staying with a family member in his old age? I have not yet located his obituary, but that might provide some additional clues.

And why was his death recorded in Mercer County? As I mentioned above, I searched the entire Mercer County set for our family tree surnames, and this is the only Darke County relative I have found in Mercer County records. This experiences has taught me, though, to check record sets for adjacent counties, just in case an assessor or recorder decided to jot down a death that may have happened near, but not technically within, county lines.

Christopher Magoto and his wife, Catherine Humbert Magoto are buried in Darke County, Ohio's Holy Family Cemetery. They are my husband's 4x great-grandparents through his paternal grandmother's line. Christopher and Catherine were born in the town of Hannonville-sous-les-Côtes, which is located in the Lorraine region of northeastern France. In 1852, they left France with six of their children and sailed to America, entering the country at New York City and subsequently making their way to the small French Catholic communities located in the northeastern portion of Darke County, Ohio. Like most other French and German immigrants in the area, they lived on a farm, grew crops, and raised livestock. Catherine passed away in 1861 at age 49, while Christopher lived until 1892, when he passed away at age 80. He did not remarry after his wife passed away.

When I found both Christopher and Catherine's French civil birth records, I noticed that the ages at death as inscribed on the gravestone were incorrect (fairly common, esp. for immigrants). Also, like most French immigrants in this area, the family changed their surname from 'Magotaux,' which is how it is spelled on Christopher's birth record, to the more phonetic and easily-spelled 'Magoto.' I do love that Catherine's maiden name is included on the gravestone; if only all of our female ancestor's had theirs on their stones - tracing female lines would be so much easier!

This is the headstone of my husband's 4x great-grandparents, Francois Pierre Bulcher and Mary Celestine (Voisinet) Bulcher. They were born and married in the small French village of Evette, which is currently situated in the Territoire de Belfort and located not far from France's eastern borders with both Switerland and Germany.They came to America through New York as a young married couple in 1847 with a baby daughter named Marie Rose (Mary Rosa), who is my husband's 3x great-grandmother. They entered the country under the surname of "Burtechert." Their journey from France to Western Ohio is chronicled in a biographical sketch of one of their sons, Joseph John Bulcher, which was published in A Biographical History of Darke County, Ohio.

"It was a long and tedious voyage from Havre to New York, and by canal they proceeded to Buffalo, by lake to Toledo, and by canal to Berlin*, Ohio, where they arrived in the woods. By ox team they came to Wayne township, Darke county, and the father (Francois) pruchased forty acres of land just over the line in Shelby county, for which he paid three dollars per acre."*This town of Berlin is now known as Ft. Loramie.

According to U.S. census data, the family lived on this land for about twelve years before moving to Patterson Township in Darke County. Francis and Mary Celestine lived here until they both died in 1907. They were married for sixty years and had twelve children together.

A little while ago, I wrote a short post about how Facebook enabled me to reach out to some of my second cousins and in order to share family history information with them. Today, I had another genealogy-related experience with Facebook.

A Facebook friend was sharing some exciting development news regarding her toddler. Since my daughter is about the same age, I made a relevant comment under her post. Of course, I received a notification when the next person commented on the thread. I noticed that this woman's maiden name was Magoto, which is the maiden name of my husband's great-great-grandmother, Amelia Magoto. It's a unique name and spelling (originally 'Magottaux,' but changed after the family settled in America). I went out on a limb and asked this friend of my friend if she was, by chance, from Ohio. Now, I'm not sure where she currently lives, but our mutual friend lives in Kentucky, so it could have seemed like a random question. She quickly responded that she was born and raised in the SAME Ohio county in which Amelia was born (Darke County). At this point, it was pretty clear that she and my husband share a common ancestor. I apologized for hijacking my Facebook friend's discussion and went on to exchange a few messages with Ms. Magoto. And it turns out that her father actually has a family history book that has a lot of information about the Magoto family ancestors, which could turn out to be a great source of information for building my husband's family tree.

Lesson of the day: If there is an unusual surname in your family tree and you see someone on Facebook with the same name and spelling, go out on that limb and try to message him/her. You may just find a relative. :-)

Jules Francois ('Julius') Magoto and Mary Rosa Bulcher are the great-great-great-grandparents of my husband on his dad's side of the family. Julius was born in 1835 in the French town of Hannonville-sous-les-Côtes, which is in the Lorraine region of northeast France. He came to America with his parents, Christopher Magottaux and Marie Catherine Humbert, in 1852. In the 1860 U.S. Census, the family is listed as living in Patterson Township in Darke County, Ohio. (Julius is not listed as he had already gotten married.)

Mary Rosa was born in 1846 in the French town of Belfort, which is located in the Franche-Comté region of northeast France. She came to America as an infant in 1847 with her parents, Francois Pierre Burtechert (or Burtecher) and Marie Celestine Voisinet. In the 1850 U.S. Census, they are living as farmers in Loramie Township (Shelby County), Ohio.

Julius and Mary Rosa were married September 14, 1869 in Frenchtown (Darke Co.), Ohio. It was the second marriage for Julius, as his first wife, Christine Berge, died in 1868 when she was only 28 years old. Julius and Mary Rosa had seven children who lived into adulthood and many more grandchildren.

It was quite common for French immigrants who settled in western Ohio to change the spellings and/or pronunciations of their surnames soon after arriving in America. Sometimes the change was intentional, but quite often it came about as a result of inaccurate transcriptions of the name on official documents, such as land deeds, marriage and birth records, or census schedules.

Before I started researching my husband's family tree, I wasn't aware of the French immigrant influence in rural western Ohio. I had known about the settlement of the German immigrants in the Ohio Valley, probably because their influence was more widespread and they arrived in greater numbers than the French. Most of the churches and towns that were founded by French immigrants in western Ohio in the mid-1800s are still around, and even the influence of the language lives on in certain places. There is a town in Shelby County by the name of 'Russia;' however, it is pronounced "roo-shee," which is actually quite similar to the proper pronunciation of 'La Russie,' which means 'Russia' in French. (You can listen to the French pronunciation here.) Interestingly, though, another western Ohio French settlement by the name of 'Versailles' is actually pronounced 'ver-sales', so the original French pronunciation was lost/changed at some point.